I have recently started using my PC for gaming and want to upgrade my graphics card. My will stretch only as far as a saphire radeon 9800 pro 128mb, I wanted to know if this is capable of dealing with games like starwars battlefront and halflife 2. Are there alternatives I should consider (similar price) and how does it compare to Radeon ATI 9800XT 256MB AGP - Creative Graphics Card?

As for sound cards, well you can get a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 for $70 I think and those are great cards..... In my personal experience when upgrading from my 7.1 Chaintech onboard audio to an Audigy 2 ZS....there was basicly no difference I was very disappointed with it when I had a crappy set of speakers, but I am sure it makes more of a difference with a good set of speakers like mine, so my advice is unless you have a good set of speakers, then a good sound card really ain't gonna do you any good compared to onboard audio